Influence Map Picture

I found this thing floating around and decided to fill it in for myself~

I felt like it was a good idea because I lose motivation to do art a lot so this will remind of what makes me want to do it and jazz

Here they are in no particular order (I can't decide which are more important than others):

1. Sonic the Hedgehog, the series and character. The games in the series are the among first video games I'd ever played; I grew up with this guy since I was at least 4 or 5. Sonic the character has always been one of my role models, because he's so kind and so selfless and he always keeps his mind on the present, never the past which could bog him down. I'd peg him as my favorite character ever; I really want to be just like Sonic someday.

2. Pokemon. Pokemon is my other favorite game series. It never fails to be fun, and even though it's a lot of strange creatures fighting each other, the main message from every game is about friendship, working together and conquering challenges with your loved ones by your side. I grab a lot of story and character design inspiration from this series. I put Entei from the movie Spell of the Unown because Entei is not only my favorite Pokemon, but Spell of the Unown is my favorite Pokemon movie, and I loved Entei's character. He was so devoted to Molly and so willing to love her and be her father, and he did anything for her as long as it made her happy, even if it was wrong. But after he realized that that in itself was the wrong thing to do and helped her to want to live in the real world after all... You'd have to see the movie to really understand what I mean, but this movie and Entei are where I get influences for a lot of my stories and things.

3. Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! One of my favorite animated movies~ I would watch this movie all the time because I loved how beautiful and unique it looked and the story of it all, plus the soundtrack is great, too! It's this movie that made me decide I wanted to go into animation.

4. The Fox and the Hound. I could arguably say that this movie is my favorite movie, I've loved to watch this one since I was like 3 XD Nowadays I love it because of how much it tears me up inside every time I watch it. I want all of the stories I write to make others feel emotions like this one made me do.

5. Megamind. When I first saw this movie I didn't think I was going to like it because of the whole superheroes theme but the way this movie runs with the idea and all its other themes is just magnificent. All the characters are totally relatable, but my favorite is Megamind because he has a trait that I really would love to have someday, and that's not giving up no matter how many times you fail to reach your goal. (Not to mention I'm a sucker for romance... XD)

6. Rio. This movie is the most colorful one I've ever seen, and I can relate to the message of overthinking things instead of just winging it (ha) because of how much it holds you back. Again, I'm a sucker for a lot of things in this movie... the colors, talking animals, the music... makes me want to live in Rio, honestly, haha! I really need to see the sequel, speaking of which...

7. Mythology. While I don't necessarily draw my inspiration from things that happen in myths, I do love the concept of gods and goddesses having influence on the world over which they watch. You can go through some of my stories and find a lot of deities and a lot of the characters acknowledging their existence. I peg that partially on my own faith, too, myself being a Catholic

8. Pinkie Pie. While MLP is one of my favorite cartoons, I really have to point out Pinkie Pie as being one of my favorite characters ever~ She's like the personification of happiness, and she always wants for other people to be happy. I've made it one of my goals to try to make people happy in any way I can, even if it's small. It's hard, but I'm working on it! Her character archetype is found in a few of my characters, namely Wyatt, to be specific.

9. Birds. They're my favorite animals, beautiful and fascinating in so many ways. They're rife with symbolism of all kinds, but I think their general symbolism of freedom is what I like most about them. They turn up in some of my characters, like my fursona, Wyatt like I mentioned above because he has wings, Mistral the First Bird, to name some.

11. Owl City. Adam's music is the first I've really been addicted to, because he paints such beautiful images with his songs! They're inspiration for a lot of things in my stories, and some of my characters.

12. Gorillaz. I can say the same thing about Gorillaz as I can for Owl City, but I think what draws me to Gorillaz most is how unique their sound is, and the melancholy mood of a lot of their songs. Gorillaz songs make you think about the world and the people in it... and it makes you groove while you listen, too~

13. The furry fandom. I've been a furry for as long as I can remember, but only a few years ago did I find out that there existed communities for this sort of interest. I would really love to be active in the furry community because I've only ever seen love come out of it, and a lot of people seem super friendly and they do a lot to uplift people around them. You all know that I've got a lot of anthro characters, way more than I have human ones. I've always loved animals (well... drawing them) more than humans so they're pretty prominent in my art. And even thought the furry fandom has its flaws and stereotypes associated with it, it reminds me it's okay to be different when you feel the need to be. After all, furries don't harm nobody no how ^^